Giuliani Thinks Captured Nigerian Girls Should Have de Blasio’s Focus, Not Ferrets

Rudy Giuliani wishes Mayor Bill de Blasio would ferret out some other issues.

The former Republican mayor, who has had harsh words for Mr. de Blasio before, ripped the liberal Democrat for focusing too much on animal rights and not enough on other concerns, like the return of kidnapped Nigerian girls.

“She told me ferrets were dangerous in urban environments because they attack little babies,” Mr. Giuliani said on the Geraldo Rivera Show today, explaining his decision with his health commissioner to successfully ban ferrets in the 1990s. “Then the ferret people went crazy and one point, one of them actually charged me when I was coming home from having a haircut for my daughter and started yelling and screaming at me,” he said.

“They were so concerned about ferrets and had so little concern about the people who were getting killed in the city like human beings that I said maybe they needed a little help,” Mr. Giuliani continued. “When they called me about it [this week], I said maybe we should be thinking more about the girls in Nigeria than we should the ferrets.”

Mr. Giuliani was referring to the group of Nigerian girls who were recently kidnapped by a terrorist group, becoming an international sensation. The former mayor scoffed at some of Mr. de Blasio’s other priorities as well, like banning horse-drawn carriages from the city.

Ferrets entered the news this week when the New York Timesreported that Mr. de Blasio’s Department of Health was urging a repeal of Mr. Giuliani’s ferret ban, arguing that ferrets do not bite more frequently than other pets.

Mr. Giuliani was not amused–he told a story about a horse and a homeless woman who died, lamenting that there was more public outcry over the horse than the woman. He said he arranged a funeral for the woman and his staffers attended.